Elephone Announces Biometric USB Flash Drive

Elephone has announced a new USB flash drive with a built-in fingerprint reader, reports Neowin.

Details at this point are scant – there is no indication of the device’s price, storage capacity, or even what it’s made of, though it does appear to have a metallic chassis. What is clear is that the drive features a fingerprint reader roughly the size of the USB connector itself. And Neowin reports that the device will feature public and private storage capabilities, with the fingerprint scan needed only for access to the encrypted private information.

It’s worth noting that Elephone has traditionally been a smartphone maker, but evidently sees alternative device offerings for its technology. That may be the product of a growing trend that has seen biometric fingerprint scanners become an almost standard feature on smartphones; Elephone may just be adapting some of its own mobile technology to a computer peripheral.

Meanwhile, biometric security is becoming more popular with PC and laptop hardware, with a particularly strong push from Microsoft via the Windows Hello security of its latest operating system. Now, with USB fingerprint readers available to let users take advantage of that kind of biometric security on their own devices, the concept of USB fingerprint scanners could be catching on in a big way as Elephone’s USB drive approaches the mass market.